boys will be...well, you know!

just thought i would post this cute pic! This month I am point person on the campus! This means on top of all my other responsibilities...i am the go-to girl if there are any problems on the YWAM base! Well of course, there are many. So as I am running aroung like a chicken with my head cut-off I come flying out the dining hall only to discover these armed bandits, you may recognize one, my little Reid, armed with what was once your common household cleaning item, but is now your weapons of warfare! Aahhhhh...the imagination!

in need of a miracle...

this is Armando, recently just released from the Juvenile Hall we mentor and counsel at on a weekly outreach. He is very close to his GED (an equivalent to high school diploma), currently staying with his mom and has seven years in prison hanging over his head if he makes one wrong move. Actually, that's seven years plus whatever time he will get for any addtional charge, if added. He looks like your run-of-the-mill, typical 18 year old. But, like many of our amazing youth, he's caught up. By what? Meth. Right now, he's clean. We hung out with him on Thursday, met his mom, and sat down for hours discussing what life could look like for Armando. It could go two ways and he knows it. His dad is not in the picture, and hasn't contacted him for years. His mom, however, is great. She has laid down the much needed boundaries, immediately and right now he is working with a brother. We are hoping to co-ordinate the testing for his GED within the next few weeks, once receiving the necessary paperwork on Armando from Texas. This is a key transitional time..he is need of many prayers! He wants to become a fire-fighter, possibly through the military. But, I know for Armando the biggest miracle right now would be if he could recogonize his need for God, his need for a savior. Please pray for that miracle!

Here is a picture of Barry, April & Armando at Charlie Brown Farms in Littlerock...I don't care how "urban" I am...there is a little bit of country in me. So when we went to see Armando I dragged them all out for a "family style" morning at Charlie Browns! It was fun. There were so many things to look at you have to go back again to see it all! We sat down at the table reading the dieter's handbook and the guidebook to dealing with idiots...or something bizarre like that. Anyways, it was definetly quirky, like me! Notice the toilet paper roll cleverly disquised as napkins. Made my day! I even took a picture with, wait is that John Wayne? You have to have a little fun or it's no fun. Right?

Miracles. Armando needs one and so does Micah. In Micah's life he has realized how desparately he needs God, but for him he is at the point where we hope Armando doesn't go...the point where he is now looking at possible prison term of 12 years. Micah continues to read his Bible, prays with other inmates, and encourages anyone he can. I can't help but to look back to a little over a year ago, when he was still a minor, released from Juvenile Hall at the age of 17 into his mom's custody. At that time, she left for 2 months. Micah was alone, and had no way to accomplish the demands probation had laid out before him. That's abandonment, but no one stepped up to plead his case. It's no wonder as I look back on this young man's life that he has made the choice's he has, there was no way he was mature enough to take care of himself, he had been in and out of incarceration since the age of 13. His dad, deceased since he was 9. His mom has not shown up to one hearing for Micah. She has never come to visit him. But when he was home, it was constant demands to get her money. Micah appears in court on the 23rd, and again on the 6th of February. There are two courts, one with each case. If just one case would get dropped then there would be a chance for him. The miracle? That Micah would see the hand of God in all this. I don't know what that looks like, but please pray for Micah. Here is a excerpt from his most recent letter:
God is answering everybody's prayer's because for the past few weeks I've been feeling good. I'm not stressing
as much, I've been reading my bible everyday and I feel God is going to help me through this.
He referred to the scripture in Acts, when Jesus confronts Saul. He said he likes it that Jesus didn't look at Saul like a bad person. He said in his letter to us:
I'm glad Jesus doesn't look at me as a bad person, I love him so much...
We took Reid to see Micah last time for a visit and the two of them went on and on about reptiles as they always have in the past. In Micah's closing line of his letter he wrote, I love you mother. Please pray for Micah, he's just another one of my kids, I will stand in the gap for. We only need a miracle, Jesus!

challenges

While challenges may look different and come in many forms, they all require the same thing. A response. On Wednesday morning, the Freedom Project visited a Christian school. The Freedom Project has done the turnaround drama since we started, the impact remains the same. This picture is the part in the drama where one girl falls victim because of the choices she makes in her life. In essence, a life lived apart from God. Her Christian friend watched helplessly by the sidelines, she did not want to get involved so, she didn't reach out. The result, her friend died and now she will walk away from God, and go down the same path as the other knowing it leads to death. Only until a third friend intervenes, praying and reaching out, the second one would be saved. As we completed the performance part of the program we opened it up for q & a. One student stepped up to ask, why didn't the second friend help when she saw what was happening to her friend. That is when we shared with the students that although the second friend knew the truth, and had learned it in church, she choose to do nothing with it. They need to know what they believe and act on it, share it with thier friends. Don't let other's perish without hearing the truth. You should always be willing to share it with others and help them in their time of need. It was really a great morning. We trust that they were challenged by that message, it really hit them hard and as much as middle schoolers tried to look cool ,they were impacted. Also pictured is April wrapping it up! Go April!

Then hours later, as a few of us from that outreach sat in on a meeting at the YWAM base, we were shaken. Joy Dawson had come to share a message she had been preparing for the mission. Jesus, the model. The first challenge came as she asked, do we truly believe we can be like JESUS? Or, do we model our lives like others in the bible, because they're character seems more achievable? Do we steer clear of the study of Jesus, because of our unbelief? Has our hearts grown hard over the years of playing church? Do you know they have, and they do? Here is just one point to think about: Jesus had singlemindedness and intensity of purpose to accomplish the task given Him by the Father....are you easily distracted from this pursuit? John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do....can we say this?

Ready, set, go!

Ok...2006. Happy New Year! Ready, set, go! Remember, as a child, getting ready to run a race someone would shout, "READY, SET, GO!" I hope you remember, it will help my story. So, early this week I had my schedule, then the Lord interrupted my schedule and called me and another leader to prayer, we briefly stopped and "readied ourselves" to hear what He had to say. He gave me this verse, Joshua 3:15, Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. As we continued to pray, He showed us both that the Israelites were facing overwhelming circumstances, but this came at a time of harvest! (Yippee, we all love this word, and since He is the Lord of the harvest he can say when, right? Right! And it usually is when there is alot of other things going on..but that is another story) I sensed he was preparing us, yes, let's dare to say making us ready! He even spoke that my overwhelming circumstance was my family. I humbly admit, that it has been overwhelming, the needs of my family outside of my home. It is interesting that the leader with me had the very opposite story.
So as we allowed that to set in our hearts and mind that he handled the floodwaters. Yes, they trusted him and placed thier feet in, but it was He who stopped the water. The next verse says "as soon as the priests feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing"! (vs 16) They were made ready by a word from God for this crossing the Jordan into the promised land. He readied them and He readies us. His sets the word in our hearts. Then we are equipped to go. Shortly after the prayer time, I received a call that my mom (pretty lady on the right) had a massive heart attack. I was ready, I was set to go. I knew there was the circumstance, but I also knew it was harvest time. She had a procedure done the following day, with two arteries unblocked. Her blood pressure and pulse have not stablilized, but she is much better. We had just the most amazing time talking about Jesus. I was ready for this, but I wasn't before we had prayed. This year, think like a child..when you hear God calling you, climb into His lap, let him get you ready, don't rush off before what he has spoken has set in your spirit, then and only then, go.....Go and bring Jesus to a hurting world in 2006!